Westworld

[Driver]

OH I DID

[Jacen123]

Well fuck. That was awesome. I'm definitely going to have to go back and rewatch this season after next week.

[Driver]

It WAS awesome. Maeve rules.

 

Though I m a little confused about the--

 

 

Bernard = Arnold reveal. Are we saying he recreated just Arnold's personality and skills and put them in Bernard? Or just his physicality? If that's the case, wouldn't everyone then know Bernard was a host if he looked like Arnold? Granted he's been dead for awhile, but if there's a picture of him on Ford's desk and he's known as part of the park history-- anyone could see they looked the same.

 

[Dark Wader]

Physicality:

 

 

 

Logan mentioned to William a few episodes ago that they hadn't been able to find anything about Ford's old partner and no pictures existed (or that they could find) and that he'd killed himself before the park opened. It looks like Bernard wasn't created for at least 20 years after Arnold's death, so either no one around now that knew what he looked like or if anyone aside from Ford and the hosts knew what he looked like in the first place.

 

But definitely modeled after Arnold - the scenes we saw of Dolores talking to Bernard throughout the season would of actually been flashbacks to conversations with Arnold.

 

 

[Driver]

I got th Delores part-- but I'd forgotten about that tidbit on Arnold, thank you.

[Lucas1138]

It's so hard to comment on any one thing because everything is so tightly bound up.

 

Episode 10 predictions:

 

Maeve going off script is part of Ford's new narrative in an effort to make sure the Board doesn't wrest control of the park from him. He may not be completely in control of her, but I feel like he put those events in motion and knows he can stop her or "end' the narrative once the Board is out of the picture.

 

Early-timeline-cannibal-Abernathy ends up capturing Dolores/William next week and sees the picture of Juliet. That's why he bigs out when he sees the picture in the present.

 

Dolores = Wyatt

 

Bonus tinfoil prediction: Bernard never actually killed Elsie. They've shown us twice now without showing the death knell or her dead body. She stopped him or he stopped himself somehow. He erased that part from his memory to hide it from Ford. Elsie has been in hiding and has reprogrammed the Indians to bring Stubbs to her because he's the only one she can trust.

 

Maybe more as I think of them.

[Lucas1138]

Let's get weird tonight.

[Odine]

That was awesome.

[Copper]

So the only thread that didn't even get mentioned is what happened to Stubbs/Elsie. I hope that next season that comes back around, cause I'm invested in them!

[Driver]

Logan as well.

 

But yeah-- that was great. This is what Lost should have done. Pay it all off and at the same time, set up something new.

[Copper]

Oh, yeah, Logan. I quite hated that guy so I forgot about him.

[Odine]

Don't need a season 02 though. That left it in such a perfect spot. I mean of course I'll watch a second season but that felt quite self contained and resolved in a very satisfying way. Not sure I need any more.

[Poe Dameron]

Just watched it myself. I liked it well enough, but the writers got caught up their own rear with the whole mystery aspect. The elements are interesting enough without the constant mind****s. I suspect I would have liked it better if they'd made it clear William's storyline was in the past from the start and maybe tweek Logan's character to be a misdirect for which of them would become Ed Harris and the only chronological surprise being the Delores/Arnold conversations.

 

I'm not a big fan of complexity for complexity's sake. At some point it just feels like writers masturbating to their own cleverness. Though I'll grant that it isn't as bad as Lost and they always had a solid idea of where they were going. Well, with the exception of the bit about the park apparently forgetting to send someone out to check why Delores is off-script (again). It just wasn't fun going through several episodes catching all these inconsistencies and weird breaking of rules and just being asked to wait around for them to clear all of them up for me in the last couple of episodes.

 

Like I said, they've got enough interesting elements to work with. It just wasn't necessary and not something I was really in the mood for and distracted from the actual storyline.

[Tank]

Just watched it myself. I liked it well enough, but the writers got caught up its own rear with the whole mystery aspect. The elements are interesting enough without the constant mind****s. I suspect I would have liked it better if they'd made it William's storyline was in the past from the start and maybe tweek Logan's character to be a misdirect for which of them would become Ed Harris and the only chronological surprise being the Delores/Arnold conversations.

 

I'm not a big fan of complexity for complexity's sake. At some point it just feels like writers masturbating to their own cleverness. Though I'll grant that it isn't as bad as Lost and they always had a solid idea of where they were going. Well, with the exception of the bit about the park apparently forgetting to send someone out to check why Delores is off-script (again). It just wasn't fun going through several episodes catching all these inconsistencies and weird breaking of rules and just being asked to wait around for them to clear all of them up for me in the last couple of episodes.

 

Like I said, they've got enough interesting elements to work with. It just wasn't necessary and not something I was really in the mood for and distracted from the actual storyline.

I did an abbreviated re-watch last month and I agree 100% with what you're saying.

[Tank]

GUYS I AGREED WITH POE WHAT IS HAPPENING I THINK I MIGHT BE A HOST AND I'VE BEEN PROGRAMMED INTO A DIFFERENT ROLE

[Jacen123]

[Guest]

Has anyone seen the episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries with the fishermen? Because that reminds me of Poe and Tank.

[Stevil]

The pair of them have been smoking crack. The show as great end of. I watched it completely unspoiled and I didn't feel that way about it.

[Dark Wader]

Anyone else catch the S2 premiere last night? I thought it was a good kick off to the season. I like what they're hinting at so interested to see where they're going to take it. Though if you didn't like the mystery element of the first I don't think you'll be too keen on this season since the show seems pretty much aimed at Reddit theorists now.

[ShadowDog]

I thought it was awesome. Nice setup for what should be a great S2

[Poe Dameron]

As an individual episode, it really wasn't all that good. I imagine most newcomers intrigued by the hype would find nothing to latch onto, turn it off, and dismissed it. It's definitely nowhere near as gripping as Season One's first episode.

 

As a setup, we'll have to see.

 

Personally, I would have started the season focusing on one character or group being hunted in the aftermath and basically bring us up to the present. Have them run across some of things we'll see across the season and end it with them being hunted down by Dolores or whatever. Then run this episode as episode 2. Best to restart with a simple narrative that could be built upon instead of just jumping around in time and touching on five separate storylines that could have been cut together a hundred different ways and made no difference since there's not really a story arc to be found here.

 

Also, I know it's not the same team and they probably won't take forever to explain it, but seeing the mysterious Bengal tiger instantly had me going back to the polar bear in Lost's pilot.

[Lucas1138]

So we got, what, three different time frames?

 

1. Bernarnold and Delores (could be Arnold in the past, or Bernard in the future)

2. Bernard and Charlotte

3. Bernard and Military

 

There's some trickery going on, certainly. My understanding is that when the military guys find Bernard it's 2 weeks post-party/massacre. No one thinks to ask about his well-being or how he's been out two weeks. His interactions with the military boss guy (Strand?) are also a little off. But I dunno.

 

Tidbit:

- We got kinda-sorta confirmation that the Westworld park is on an island (in the South China Sea? evidenced by the Chinese military being present). That was never really super important to me. I thought easiest answer was most likely right, but people theorized all sorts of things.

[Tank]

I will admit it— I was confused as eff.

 

So yeah— at least two time frames:

 

1. The start of the host rebellion which starts right after Ford is shot in the present setting of last season, in which the hosts are hunting down the humans. Bernard is running with Charlotte and finding out about the the company trying to steal Ford’s secrets/IP which is centered on the first Abernathy host.

 

2. 2-3 weeks later, in which the security teams/military come in to secure the island and find Bernard, and later find that seemingly all the hosts have been killed.

 

I’m not sure where the Dolores bit is. If that is Arnold in the past, or if she was sparing Bernard in the earlier time frame, or something in between.

[ShadowDog]

I think the military (or at least the leader) knows Bernard is a host and are stringing him along to get info. Just the way they treated him.

[Dark Wader]

Strong theories I read were that Bernard is actually Dolores in Bernie's body when the military dudes show up, which kind of explains his behaviour a bit more (and the "I killed them all" bit). Another that Stubbs is aware that Bernie is a host, which I think is probably inevitable considering we don't know what happened from him being surrounded by ghost nation and hanging out with the military.